** Halling Walk. **

I took a stroll to the river today to see if I could find something new for the year list, I went via Bailey the  local horse, there is no way I can go that way without taking some food with me, I have been feeding her for so long when she sees me, as she does with others who feed her, she starts to walk over, today it was a carrot and a apple, although she is partial to extra strong mints, yes strange I know. I got to the river which was at half way to high tide, and the first birds seen was the usual Mallard, B/H/Gulls, Common Gulls, Herring Gulls and Moorhens. I scanned the mud banks to look for any waders that are often feeding there  and today I found the bird I was hoping for because I haven't seen one there this winter, there is normally one present all winter, and that bird is a COMMON SANDPIPER. It was a bit distant at first but I did get a closer look later. The other wader species was Redshank, in total there was 10 of them. No Lapwing today.
My last stop off as usual was Marsh Road. The cattle field is well flooded now , which threw up a good number of Teal (32) Gadwall (9) and Moorhen (25). There was 9 Greylag Geese grazing at the back of the field, 4 male Pheasant was wandering about, and 2 Shelduck flew in to feed.  The Snipe seem to have disappeared. I did happen to see my first Bee of the year.
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When I got home I put up the second of my 2 tit boxes,  both was used last year, one by Blue Tits, and the other by it's cousin the Great Tit, all birds fledged.
I then made myself a cuppa and did a garden watch and it turned up some good birds, The male BLACKCAP was having a good feed on the apples, the PIED WAGTAIL is constantly here, it flies straight in and lands on the bird bath just outside the window, it isn't bothered by me being there, the REED BUNTINGS I don't have to wait long for them to turn up, today there was 2 male and 2 female, one of the males in in it's breeding plumage looking very resplendent , the other one is not far behind. The surprise for me was seeing a solitary REDWING land on the top of the big tree at the bottom of the garden.
The other birds seen saw as follows:
Collared Dove, Wood Pigeon Magpie, Blackbird, Starling, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, House Sparrow, Blue Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Wren, Robin, Dunnock.
My " Bird of the Day " is the ** COMMON SANDPIPER **